White Space Season 1

been keeping to herself. Houser could feel it like it was standing in the middle of the room, an invisible guest waiting to be spoken to life.
    “If you want me to find your son, I need to know everything , Mrs. Heller. Even things you might not think I need to know. Perhaps there’s something you didn’t tell the police.”
    There. That was it.
    Houser saw the shift of her eyes, the momentary hitch in her breath. The way her hands started to fidget. She wanted to tell him, but was afraid. Afraid of what, though? Houser considered saying something, but instead, let silence massage her.
    “He had a list,” she said, then closed her eyes and swallowed as if she’d just confessed to the crime herself.
    “A list?” Houser said.
    “After Roger died, I found a list he’d hidden. He’d written the names of the students he shot. As if he’d planned to shoot them specifically.”
    Interesting.
    “Was Mrs. Hughes on the list?”
    “No. Just the students. And there was something else I found.”
    “What else did you find, Mrs. Heller?”
    The front door swung open.
    Mrs. Heller leapt to her feet, bursting into tears, and crying, “Alex!”
    She ran to her son and hugged him, squeezing him as he dropped the backpack he’d been holding.
    Alex shivered into his mother’s hug. His black hoodie and jeans were filthy, his hair a mess, and his skin clammy. His eyes were exhausted, but also terrified, as if something had happened to him, or he’d seen something that spooked him. As their eyes met, Alex wasn’t wearing the look of someone wondering who the big black guy standing in his living room was. Empty eyes didn’t wonder.
    Just like Emma’s had been when he found her.
    The This Shit Ain’t Right part of Houser’s brain started to tingle
    “Are you okay?” his mother asked, pulling away and looking her son up and down. “What happened?”
    “I got in a fight,” his voice sounded off, filled with a gravel of fright or fear or something Houser couldn’t place. “Then Katie and I were coming home through the woods and it started to rain, so we hid in a cave.”
    The way Alex looked down when he said they’d hid in a cave made Houser wonder what else they’d done in the cave.
    Alex went on, “We were waiting for the rain to die down, and we fell asleep waiting.”
    “Fell asleep?” Mrs. Heller asked, confounded. Apparently she hadn’t made the same connection Houser had.
    “And then I woke up, and … Katie was gone.”
    “Gone?”
    “Yeah. I don’t know where she went. I tried calling her. I tried calling you, but my phone’s battery is dead. I have to call her house.”
    The life had returned to Alex’s eyes, though he’d still not yet asked who the hell the black guy in their living room was. Maybe Houser had that look of cop or something. Alex went to the phone and was about to call Katie when the phone rang. He picked it up.
    “Katie!” Alex said, excited, life returning to his eyes. “Where are you? … What? What do you mean I was gone. No, I woke up and you were gone! … I … I dunno. It doesn’t matter. Are you okay?”
    Houser watched Mrs. Heller watch her son, tears of happiness streaming down her face. The desperation and mourning on her face just moments ago had been replaced by a mother’s joy and relief. She turned and smiled at Houser, wiping the tears from her face.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    “Easiest job I ever did,” Houser grinned.
    “How much do I owe you?” she asked as she looked around the living room for something, probably her purse.
    “Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad your son is back.”
    Alex looked at his mom and held up a finger, “I’ll be right back, okay?” then he disappeared up the stairs, continuing the conversation with his girlfriend.
    “Nice to see you, too,” Mrs. Heller said, laughing to hide the hurt that Alex was more concerned with how his girlfriend was than his mother who had been worried sick.
    She began to lead Houser toward the door, “Well, I don’t wanna keep you.”
    He wasn’t sure if he should ask, but couldn’t ignore the itch in the back of his brain. “Mrs. Heller? You were saying something about a list and something?”
    She shook her head, “Can we forget I mentioned that? I really don’t want to drag my husband’s name through the mud any more than it has been already.”
    “I understand, Mrs. Heller, and I don’t want to, either. But I can’t help but feel there’s something else you want to